Robinson Crusoe
Robinson's Faith
It is obvious that Crusoe is a religious man but is he true to his faith of a Christian? Crusoe seems to be on a roller coaster of faith, battling whether he is fully committed to trusting God or believing that he can take care of himself without any godly supervision. On the island, after the first few years he constantly reads the Bible and tries to practice the works of God on the island. Before his ship crashed, his family had also been very religious but from the time in the book with his family, it seems that at the time, Crusoe was not a very godly man. Not that he would do sinful things but it seemed that once he left his home he would encounter more things that were "linked by God". A passage that comes from his father talking to him before he leaves home is almost a curse for leaving without his father's consent. ". . . he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest perswasions to keep him from going to the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army where he was kill'd; and tho' he said if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist me." (Defoe, Robinson Crusoe 7)
The conflict in this novel could be looked upon as a 'Man VS. Self' scenario, because living by one's lonesome creates problems on it's own, but I think that it could also be looked upon as a 'Man VS. God' conflict. It seems that when Crusoe has anything happen to him, it turns into a mental war between himself and God. For any blessings to fall upon him, Crusoe has to live a Christian lifestyle, but if anything negative happens it seems that Crusoe believes that God is punishing him for living on his own without God's help, or for forgetting God in general.
I think that Crusoe is true to his Christian faith because when he's teaching Friday about Christianity, Crusoe seems to know what he's talking about. There are a few point that Crusoe did have trouble explaining to Friday, that Friday would have to learn spiritually,"...yet nothing but divine Revelation can form the Knowledge of Jesus Christ...nothing but a Revelation from Heaven, can form in the Soul..." (158). But as any faith is lived out, Crusoe does battle with sinning and forgetting God. It's not that this makes him a terrible person, it's just he's made more human from this experience because it shows that even though he could be being punished by his earthly and heavenly father's curse, he still is acting upon God's word and relying on God in times of trouble.
The story of Robinson Crusoe and his battle with faith, relates to me personally because Defoe wrote this as though it were his own battle with faith and religion as well. It's a challenging thing to explain, but the way that Defoe spoke through Crusoe's events and how Crusoe acted upon his "bump in the road of faith" does connect with Christian readers.
